And a thank you to NoHUHU for the armchair running commentary following this years race. Made it much easier to follow. Comic relief to offset the grueling adventures.

And much respect to all the people who entered the challenge! I sometimes think, "I could do that" as I sail for 3-4 hours in our nice warm waters. Then the sun goes behind a cloud and I get a little chilled.

NOHUHU, I'm sure you have underestimated the sharks by 100x, maybe 1000x or more. In the Everglades sharks are everywhere. I used to be a little nervous about putting my hands in the water to rinse them off after I caught a fish. I've sort of gotten over that fear--at least it is not as strong as it used to be.

When you see 6 ft and 8-9 ft (that is body length, not including tail) sharks come up and take a pass at your Cajun Thunder Rattling cork as you work it, your adrenalin gets going. They never grab the cork, because, as they get close, they see it is not something they want. Still, Everglades waters are very murky, and sharks make mistakes. They could grab your hand, not because they want a human hand, but because they mistake it for a distressed fish in those murky waters.

A few yrs ago the story circulated about one of our sea kayakers in S FL having a shark come up and grab his yellow-colored paddle blade. Ripped the paddle out of his hands. Of course, the shark left the paddle--w/ 2 teeth imbedded in it. Fortunately, his friend retrieved his paddle so he did not have to hand-paddle to it.

Keith

_________________"Don't kid yourselves, sharks are everywhere in the Everglades" Chekika

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

NOHUHU, I read this whole thread last night, and my hat's off to you for the great reports. I was following the race on the watertribe forum, facebook, and a couple of other forums and decided not to even look here until it was over, lest I get sucked into one more. I certainly would have.

Here is my annual pre-start walk along the beach. It took 8 minutes just to walk down the starting line and point my camera at almost all of the boats!

Keith, I think you make a brief appearance in one of those, but I did not recognize you and I was bundled up like an Eskimo so it's no surprise you did not notice me.

I went to checkpoint one that afternoon and sailed in the channel outside the marina, getting pictures of Sew Sew, Lugan & Heathen, and JustAnotherSailor as they came in before I got too cold and tired and went home for hot chocolate and a fire. I returned the next morning and took a bunch of pictures of departures and later arrivals. I am going to put the pics on my blog site.

My favorite boat this time around was "Bob" which is a heavily modified O'day Javelin with an extremely strange rig and an ama. He did the UM and I caught his arrival on Sunday. Nice guy, won the weirdest boat award from me, and did not appreciate being compared to Phil Bolger. I meant it as a compliment!

The guy told me that he had sailed Bob up from Fort Myers for the race, and I assume he sailed it on back after completing the Ultra Marathon. So he did the UM route in both directions and then some. He probably could have done the entire Everglades Challenge, but the parts around the 10,000 islands and Florida Bay would have been difficult in that boat. It has a fixed keel. A shoal draft one, but a fixed keel.

Alan--I believe CaptShallowWater (aka Floyd Marsden) did the Ultra Marathon, which starts like everybody at Ft Desoto Beach, but ends at the first Checkpoint--about 60 miles. Our boy, Dogslife (aka Paul Kral) did that by 5:30 pm the first day (10 hrs 24 min.) That is not to minimize that achievement by that boat (Bob) and CaptShallowWater. I have no idea of how to sail that boat. In fact, it is unlikely that I could get that boat off the beach as CaptShallowWater did.

Keith

_________________"Don't kid yourselves, sharks are everywhere in the Everglades" Chekika

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein